US Officials: A Russian Rocket Launch Last Week Likely Deployed A Space Weapon

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The launch of a classified Russian military satellite last week deployed a payload that US government officials say is likely a space weapon.

In a series of statements, US officials said the new military satellite, named Kosmos 2576, appears to be similar to two previous "inspector" spacecraft launched by Russia in 2019 and 2022.

"Just last week, on May 16, Russia launched a satellite into low-Earth orbit that the United States assesses is likely a counter-space weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low-Earth orbit," said Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the United Nations. "Russia deployed this new counter-space weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite."

Kosmos 2576 is flying in the same orbital plane as a National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) spy satellite, meaning it can regularly approach the top-secret US reconnaissance platform. The launch of Kosmos 2576 from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome on a Soyuz rocket was precisely timed to happen when the Earth's rotation brought the launch site underneath the orbital path of the NRO spy satellite, officially designated USA 314.

[...] Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, dismissed the US government's assessment about the purpose of Kosmos 2576 as "fake news." However, in the last few years, Russia has steered satellites into orbits intersecting with the paths of US spy platforms, and demonstrated it can take out an enemy satellite using a range of methods.

[...] These two previous Russian satellites-Kosmos 2542 and Kosmos 2558- continually flew within a few dozen kilometers of two other NRO satellites-USA 245 and USA 326-in low-Earth orbit. In a post on the social media platform X, McDowell wrote that the Russian military craft "shadowed US satellites at a large distance but have not interfered with them."

Because of this, McDowell wrote that he is "highly skeptical" that Kosmos 2576 is an anti-satellite weapon.

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